The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in the So-Called Shakespeare Plays
Chicago: R. S. Peale & Company, 1888. First Edition. Black and white illustrations. Cloth hardcovers. Tall octavos. [i-iv], v-ix, [x-xii], 502 and [i-ii], [503-504], 505-998 pages.
An elaborate and eccentric argument that Francis Bacon was the actual author of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Donnelly claimed that Bacon had embedded a hidden cipher within the printed text of the Shakespearian plays and poems, and devised a very complex method to "decode" this cipher, claiming to thereby reveal messages such as "Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays."
Donnelly contends that William Shakespeare did not possess the necessary education or familiarity with legal, scientific, and courtly matters required to write these works. He believes Bacon would have wished to conceal his authorship because the writing of plays was considered beneath the dignity of nobleman such as Bacon. It could also be politically risky.
The first volume in this set is concerned mainly with the argument for Bacon's authorship and the second volume lays out Donnelly's identification and decoding of the cipher.
Both volumes bound in original brown cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board titles, gilt rule at spine ends, floral printed endpapers. Bumps to fore corners of upper board of volume I, shallow bumping to spine ends and some other extremities, some minor rubs. Small prior owner tag at bottom inner margin of both front pastedowns. Hinges remain sound, endpapers not split. Clean, sound, and bright set overall. Near fine.
Item #2151
Price: $350